The Broken Promise: Sex, Marriage and Celebrity

Just days after actress Sandra Bullock won an Academy Award for her role as a sassy Southern mother in "The Blind Side," she learned her husband of five years, Jesse James, had been having an affair during their marriage.

James issued a carefully worded statement which he apologized to his wife and children for his "poor judgment." But as a fourth woman emerges, the former host of Monster Garage is being compared to famed golfer Tiger Woods.

Woods' Thanksgiving domestic spat last year, in which he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a tree, led to the revelation that he had more than 10 mistresses during his five-year marriage to wife Elin. After losing major endorsements, Woods apologized admitting that he had been "living a lie." He sought counseling at a rehab center in Mississippi and is set to participate in the upcoming Master's Tournament, hoping that the public has forgiven him for his sins.

But before the Tiger tales became the talk of the town, late night talk show host David Letterman was front-page fodder for his affair with an intern. In October, Letterman admitted on his show that he had intimate relationships with women who worked for him. This after a former CBS producer tried to blackmail Letterman for $2 million. Letterman issued a heartfelt personal apology to his wife and staff on-air. The producer, Robert Haldeman, recently plead guilty to attempted grand larceny and was sentenced to six months in jail.

For Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Presidential candidate, John Edwards, it seems the nightmare will never end. Earlier this month, Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, appeared in GQ magazine. She confessed her never-ending love for "Johnny" and the racy photo spread featured Hunter pants-less in a man's shirt, sitting on a bed filled with teddy bears. In January, Edwards had admitted being the father of Hunter's 2-year-old daughter. He and Elizabeth, who has been suffering from terminal cancer over the past two years, have separated. Many wondered, however, how could a man cheat on his dying wife? Did he not have a soul? According to a December Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, John Edwards was the most disappointing figure of 2009 among Americans. Tiger Woods came in second.

After the Elliot Spitzer scandal broke in 2008, in which the New York governor was caught in a high-priced prostitution ring, the CBS Morning Show asked several experts why men in powerful positions made such choices? On the show, Dr. Sari Locker, a sex educator and psychologist, commented that some of these men wanted sex from someone other than their wife. "They want what they're not getting at home," she said. Leon Hoffman, a psychoanalyst in New York, mentioned how power can make some people feel they can do things without any consequences. "People in power sometimes feel they can do things that us, mere mortals, are forbidden to do. There's a sense, as with adolescents, that 'I won't get caught,'" Hoffman said on the show.

However many commented on Silda Spitzer, the governor's wife who left a successful law career to raise the couple's three daughters.

Elizabeth Edwards left her cheating husband.: Photo by Flickr user NCBbrianThe wives. Ah, yes, the long-suffering wives. But take note, many of these women are successes in their own right and haven't allowed their husbands' failings to define them. Jenny Sanford, whose husband, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford tearfully declared his love for his Argentina mistress before a bevy of cameras, left her husband and wrote a best-selling book about her ordeal. And Hilary Clinton, well, we all know where she is today. The former first lady, New York senator and current Secretary of State made a historic run to be the country's first woman president.

So if history is any indication of the future, Sandra Bullock will be just fine.

Soundslides photo credits:
Image of Tiger Woods courtesy of Keith Allison
Image of John Edwards courtesy of JCTownsley
Image of Eliot Spitzer courtesy of JaxPhotography
Image of Jesse Jackson, Sr., courtesy of andycarvin
Image of Kwame Kilpatrick courtesy of Dave Hogg
Image of David Vitter courtesy of United States Senate via Wikimedia
Image of Bill Clinton courtesy of Jheat
Image of Jesse James courtesy of pinguino
Image of Mark Sanford courtesy of South Carolina Governor's office
Image of Kobe Bryant courtesy of cpphotography